A discussion of safety in the Performing Arts for professionals, students, teachers, and administrators. A sometimes terrifying look at some surprising conditions, what you might do about them; and how to plan for better safety in your facility, teaching program, and career.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Part of the House Mangers' job is to ensure the safety of the attending patrons. If your customers survive the show, they might come back and buy another ticket! Each Assembly Occupancy" (that's building code speak for "theatre, auditorium, venue, show space, etc.) must have the maximum legal occupancy clearly posted. This means that you shouldn't sell 30,000 tickets for a space designed for 10,000 people. It leaves 20,000 rather frustrated and sometimes angry fans looking for a place to vent their concerns. This recently happened at a major new sports venue. The management team decided to ignore the Fire Marshal's occupancy limits, and the resulting crush of people invaded the spaces reserved for regular seating ticket holders. The customers that pre-paid for their tickets were none to happy. Bathrooms were overloaded, long waits at concession stands, and many that did not ever get to see the game.Further information can be gleaned by reading the article in the Dallas Morning News:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092209dnmetpartypasses.4026d63.html and this article on Yahoo: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-cowboys-partypass&prov=ap&type=lgns

At the SchoolDude web site you can watch and listen to the presentation by Host Roger Young, New Mexico Deputy Fire Marshal Ray Wolf, myself, and SchoolDude Mayor David Kornegay. There are also many document and presentation downloads available.

Depending upon your area of theatre involvement, some aspects of this webinar may not seem interesting, however, please be patient and take the time to watch and listen all the way through it. There are points of information throughout it that relate directly to the theatre safety issues. Please pass this link on to your school maintenance and management officials, too, so that they can see how facility management relates to theatre safety.

We provide Theatre Consulting services that include space planning, site planning, sightline studies and seating layouts, specialty millwork for control rooms and control booths, catwalks and spotlight platforms, and general performance & support space layout.

Search This Blog

Networked Blogs

Alas, poor Yorick. He didn't heed the Safety Manual !

Safety is not a 'thing' or a book - it has to be a culture ingrained in your workplace. Every action by you or your co-workers must be continually examined to see if there is a better practice, procedure, or equipment to get the job done. Actions have consiquences. So do inactions.

You can't teach safety in a few of hours once a year. You have to continually discuss safety topics to keep them in the forefront of people's minds. The theatre is a dangerous place that is a mix of many different job descriptions, so rules and laws have to be researched and understood from many different sources. When you are loading a truck, you need to be a materials handling specialist, when you are flying scenery, you need to be a rigger, and when you are in the scene shop, you are on a construction site. Different skills sets and tools are required for each.